


Blood-Crusted, Again

by Tyler_Blackwing



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Even though Vax is a shameless bisexual flirt, Hurt Percy, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Other Vox Machina Members, POV Vax'ildan (Critical Role), Percy is bad at close combat, Pre-Slash, Protective Vax'ildan, Vax's love language is combing hair
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:46:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29449503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tyler_Blackwing/pseuds/Tyler_Blackwing
Summary: "He was so damn pale.Vax stared at Percy, his usually white hair matted and soot-stained, some blood crusted at his temple from a particularly hefty blow, glasses askew on his nose.Please, not again."Vax is DONE watching his comrades go down. Especially that idiot Percy, who's always so far away from all of them - he really needs to be more careful.
Relationships: Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III/Vax'ildan
Kudos: 39





	Blood-Crusted, Again

**Author's Note:**

> Had this one lying around and felt like finishing it, I needed something nice.  
> Oh yeah, there's nothing going on between Vax and Keyleth in this fic.  
> Hope you'll enjoy!

He was so damn pale.

Vax stared at Percy, his usually white hair matted and soot-stained, some blood crusted at his temple from a particularly hefty blow, glasses askew on his nose. 

Please, not again.

He stepped closer, a bit wobbly on his legs. Percy’s chest seemed to be rising and falling, but he wasn’t sure. To be fair, he wasn’t sure how he himself was doing, either. It was chaos after the fight, the enemy barely slain, and after a beat Vax got on his knees next to his friend. His fingertips trembled on the button resting on top of Percy’s blue-clad chest.

“Come on”, he whispered. A faint glow emitted from the connection and the man groaned beneath him. Vax breathed a sigh of relief. 

“You’ve died once too often already, De Rolo.” 

His friend smiled tiredly. “I honestly wouldn’t mind if that stopped.” 

“Yeah, me too.”

He helped Percy up and gave the glasses a little push to reposition them, patted his cheek and turned to check on the rest of their family. Most of them were tired and bleeding, but Pike was already taking care of the others. It was late. Bloody long fight. 

Scanlan whistled a soft tune and summoned the shimmering door to his mansion. Everyone put their armor and weapons aside to rest their sore muscles. Time for dinner. It took a while, a couple of bites of food until conversation started up; some chatter, Scanlan bragging, Grog with his booming laughter, Pike chiming in regularly. 

Vax breathed in the atmosphere, watched the others to calm himself down. He glanced over to Percy who seemed to be doing just the same. Chin propped up on one of his hands, his tired eyes trained on the cheerful troupe over on the other side of the table. A brief, tight smile quickly fell and grew distant.   
Vax furrowed his brows. He moved over, his sister only giving him a fond look and a wink before she turned towards Keyleth again. 

A few seconds later he plopped down next to Percy, who almost jumped at the sudden presence of his friend.    
He squeaked a little. 

“I, ah… Hello?”

“Uh. Hi”, Vax mumbled and fidgeted a bit, his eyes flitting about. He grabbed a jug of water and took a gulp.

Percy seemed to try to read him, cocked his head. He leaned forward and seemed to want to ask something sincere, but Vax met his eyes with a guarded expression, his lips pressed into a fine line. The boy seemed to change his mind then, his worry masked by a schooled politeness as he gave a little smile. 

“Thank you for earlier, Vax. I appreciate it.”

“...it wasn’t much though.”

“More than nothing. Better than having to go in for a resurrection.”

“Shut up.”

Vax shoved at Percy’s shoulder. His friend winced and stared at him again, just as before. He wanted to walk away as he was wont to do, could feel himself withdraw - but stayed put. His stare was almost aggressive, but Percy held his gaze. With an annoyed huff, he moved to pull out a comb. His friend didn’t flinch this time, but narrowed his eyes at the swift movement towards his belt bag. 

“Shut up”, he said again and lifted the comb in warning. Then he started to brush crusted blood and dirt out of Percy’s hair. 

They hadn’t had the possibility of taking a bath in a while and it was greasy and stuck out weirdly in places even without the blood, but for now this would have to do. He slowly worked through small strands and Percy was tense, but he didn't stop him. There were many unasked questions in his eyes. Still, he gave him time to collect himself, and Vax was grateful for it. He needed to concentrate on this for a moment. Keep his hands busy. Feeling the proximity, the life, warmth beneath his hands. He liked to brush Vex's hair, too, when he needed a heart-to-heart.   
Vax took a deep breath, carefully working out a completely encrusted strand. 

“You really need to stay a little farther away from people, Percy.”

“There’s not really a choice when they come at me, you know?”

“Shut up. I can’t-” and he pulled the strand he was holding a little too hard. “I can’t keep _losing_ you people. I try to bring you back up again all the time, but it’s… what if I don’t make it. It was _so_ fucking _close_ a couple of times, for so many, and if we didn’t have Pike…-”

Percy grasped at the comb with two fingers, palm gently resting on Vax's shaking hand. He hadn’t realized that he’d begun to tremble. The polite expression on Percy’s face melted into gentle sincerity as he gave his hand a squeeze.

“I know, Vax. I’m sorry.”

He stared into Percy’s face again, almost angrily but unsure as to what to do with this openness, reverting to looking anywhere except for his eyes. There was a bit of colour back in his cheeks, the hair looked slightly less grimy now, the tense muscles around his lips a bit more relaxed. Finally. 

“I promise you, I’ll be more careful. But you do know, must know-” 

As he started talking again, Vax’s eyes flicked back up and he interrupted the man by putting his free hand on his shoulder.   
Percy’s words trailed off and he blinked. 

“Um…”

Vax couldn’t help it. Sometimes he got too intense, staring and all, but he took his time forming coherent sentences about his - ugh - feelings.   
To be fair, he started to get better at it now that almost losing his family members had become a regular occurrence.

So, back to being intense. He suspected Percy to be a bit irritated, considering he’d stared at him for quite a while now, and when he started leaning in, he saw his mouth open with yet unspoken doubt, felt his breath hitch. 

Their foreheads touched. Percy breathed out. Shaky, Vax registered, and a smirk tugged at his lips before he, too, gave a quiet sigh.   
The hand still holding his own trembled. That was better. Percy was the nervous one. Back to normal.   
Vax slowly found his courage again.

“‘M not gonna hurt you, you know.”

Percy cleared his throat. He seemed to have trouble looking into his eyes when they were so close, possibly because of his near-sight, but he thought it more likely that he was flustered judging by the very healthy pink shade his face had taken on. 

“I am not afraid of that."

“What are you afraid of, then?”

Percy opened his mouth, closed it, looked left and right and sighed heavily. 

“At this point? To be perfectly honest, probably your sister.” 

For a second, Vax was confused. Then he cocked his head to look over Percy’s shoulder, catching Vex’s eyes. She made a gagging noise. 

“Get a room!”, she groaned, then grinned and gave him a thumbs up. 

He felt Percy’s hand twitch on his.   
The others either hadn’t noticed or didn’t really care. They were busy drinking. Percy, released from their stare, made an indignant noise and dropped his head to his shoulder. Vax felt his face burn through the fabric of his shirt. He laughed and patted his grimy head.

“Your hair’s still disgusting.”

“Ah… yes. It was a long couple of days. Sorry.” Percy straightened up again.

“We’re all not looking so hot, Freddy, don’t apologize.”

He received a grin and a shrug, and something that sounded very much like a “You don’t look so bad, really” whispered under his breath.   
His eyes flashed toward Percy and he lifted his hand to gently pull on a strand of hair.

“You want any help with that?” 

Smooth. Percy flushed even more and looked at him like a deer that was about to be shot. Vax could almost hear him swallow his nervousness.

“I, uh- ...” 

It was adorable, really, how Percy, silver tongued, smooth talking Percival Freddie whatever De Rolo, couldn’t get a word past his lips. He nodded however, ever so slightly, and Vax’s lips curved into a cheeky grin. 

“That a yes, Freddy?”, he teased. A wink. The shade of red on the noble’s cheeks was worth the embarrassment. Too bad he was so easily provoked by a challenge.

“Oh, for the love of - sure, why not.” 

He got up, giving an indignant sigh, striding towards his room. Vax grinned and rubbed his chin. This was fun. Looking over to his sister, he silently excused himself from the table and earned a wiggle of her eyebrows. 

He didn’t care for once.

**Author's Note:**

> I like their dynamic a lot. Just two idiots being too pragmatic.  
> Might write a second part, although I feel weird writing anything explicit.
> 
> Leave a review if you feel like it!


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